NHL ROUNDUP: 15 straight for Penguins as Iginla makes debut

Saturday, March 30, 2013

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Penguins overcame an injury to Sidney Crosby on Saturday for their 15th straight victory, beating the New York Islanders 2-0 in Jarome Iginla’s debut behind third-period goals from Matt Cooke and James Neal.

Tomas Vokoun made 35 saves as Pittsburgh moved within two wins of the NHL record of 17 straight victories set by Mario Lemieux and the 1992-93 Penguins.

Crosby skated off the ice with a towel covering his mouth after a slap shot by teammate Brooks Orpik deflected off a stick and hit the NHL scoring leader in the face just 1:28 into the game. Crosby, who immediately fell to the ice and tossed his stick in the air, did not return.

Crosby, with 15 goals and 56 points, holds a 10-point lead over Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos in the NHL scoring race. Another head injury for Crosby has to concern the Penguins. The team captain has missed considerable time the past two years because concussions. He was sidelined the final 41 games in 2011 and the Stanley Cup finals, and skipped most of the 2012 regular season as symptoms lingered.

Pittsburgh went 15-0-0 in March, the first perfect month in league history. The Penguins also won a franchise best 12th straight at home.

Alex Semin and Eric Staal each had a goal and an assist, and Jussi Jokinen also scored for Carolina. The Hurricanes snapped a seven-game winless streak to improve to 16-15-2 and move within four points of the Jets.

Olli Jokinen scored for Winnipeg. The Jets dropped to 18-16-2.

The Hurricanes scored barely over a minute into the game when Semin snapped one after Winnipeg goalie Ondrej Pavelec blocked Staal’s wrap-around attempt.

Jokinen’s wrister at 9:41, a second after the end of Carolina’s first power play, made it 2-0.

Jokinen put Winnipeg on the board at 1:26 of the second off a neat backward pass from Evander Kane as he passed the Carolina net.

Ruslan Fedotenko added an empty-net goal for the Flyers, who began the day 14th in the Eastern Conference but only six points out of the eighth and final playoff spot. Boston, meanwhile, entered with the third-most points in the conference (46).

Nathan Horton scored for the Bruins, who dropped to 2-4-1 in their past seven games. They had won four in a row against the Flyers.